S is for Snow

At preschool this week we talked about the letter S, read some books about Snow and then, rather than bundling up to go outside, we pretended that our shaving cream was snow. The kids had a lot of fun writing in it, spreading it around and just getting messy. Little kids really know how to have fun.

After they played in the "snow" they got to trace their names with glue and sprinkle "snow" aka white glitter on their names.

Christmas, take 4

Yesterday we welcomed all the Ruts to our house. We ate a yummy, but spicy, dinner of Italian Beef sandwiches, cheesy potatoes, and green beans. After dinner we let the kids rip into their presents. Hadley was enamored with all of her new "princess" dress up clothes and dolls. Joel got his own wardrobe of dress up clothes and Drake got a space themed present, including an astronaut helmet, a rocket, freeze dried ice cream and books that HE can read. (Side note: reading is going very well for Drake in Kindergarten!) Once we finally got the kids settled down and tucked into bed and most of the grown-ups (minus Papa) made it past midnight to ring in the new year with some sparkling cider and talking.

The next morning we ate some coffee cake and cherry cheese ring for breakfast and stayed in our jammies most of the morning. The boys made it out for a quick jaunt to the park to try out Drake's new rocket in the afternoon, but didn't last long with the FRIGID temperatures outside. They all came home with bright pink noses.

After chicken nachos for dinner we let the kids attempt decorating a gingerbread house. It wouldn't win any decorating awards, but they had fun doing it and by the looks of it, it must have tasted pretty good too.

(pictures to come...)

Hills of Fun

Gabe took Drake out this afternoon for some sledding on the fresh new powder we have been getting. They headed out after church and lunch (while Hadley was napping) to a local golf course that opens up the hills for sledding. They had a blast and spent several hours there!

Christmas, take 3

(pictures to come..)

After a short night of sleep, we got up early and headed down to visit the Sugars. We got there just after they had lost power and had to move the traditional Christmas brunch to a cousin's house that did have power. It was nice to arrive to a warm house, a hot breakfast, and lots of welcoming hugs. After eating, we headed over to Sugar's house to let the kids play. That evening we headed over to another cousin's house for Christmas dinner complete with appetizers, turkey, ham, green bean casserole, corn, etc..etc... makes my mouth water just thinking about it again. After dinner, Drake pulled a classic Drake. Kiersten (6), Drake(5), Blake (7) and Hadley (2) were all playing in Kiersten's room and getting along very well. Kiersten was showing my kids all of the things in her room that she uses to take care of her pet kitten, including the litter box. Drake proceeded to throw up all over her bed when she pulled out the scoop with some "product" from the litter box. Nice. So, Kiersten came in and told us that Drake had just puked. When I went in there, Drake started gagging again just while Kiersten was telling me what happened. Oh, my poor, weak-stomached boy. I feel sorry for his wife someday as I foresee diaper-changing being a hard task for him.

After dinner and puke clean-up, we headed to a hotel for the night. We got there in time for 15 minutes of swimming before the pool closed but also made it down for more swimming in the morning before heading back over to Sugar's to visit.

We interrupt this Christmas holiday for...

A WET BASEMENT! UGH!

After we got home from Christmas Eve service in the evening, we discovered that the days and days of rain had caught up to us and we had wet carpet in the basement again! This happened once back October, but we thought we had fixed the problem by adding some new fill dirt around the house. Well, after spending several hours shop-vac-ing the wet carpet and starting the fans and dehumidifiers we finally got to bed to sleep for a few hours before getting up early to head down to visit the Sugars. When we get back, we will try to figure out this mess- again!

Christmas, take 2

We decided to have our immediate family Christmas celebration on Christmas Eve morning since we are heading out early in the morning to go down south. The kids had a lot of fun taking turns opening their presents and then spending the next several hours engrossed with their new belongings. Drake was super excited about his new (used) DS that we found a good deal on and the games that some others bought him to go with it. Watching the kids open presents and seeing their sheer delight does my heart good. It IS better to give than receive.


(pictures to come...)


Gabe had to head to church about noon to get ready for services. The kids and I headed to the 4:00 service with the Holzers and Grammy. Grammy took the kids home after that service so I could stay and volunteer at the 6:00 service.

Christmas, take 1

We really spread out the Christmas celebration this year. We started off with an early celebration with the Farwell side. We spent the evening at Grammy's house on Monday, complete with pizza and lots of conversations by the fire place. We had brunch on Tuesday, Christmas dinner that evening followed by the chaos of opening presents. Drake loved his new skateboard from Grammy and Hadley's most common statement as soon as she would open a present was "I love this present!". She got decked out with a Snow White costume, movie, and doll and she was also super excited about the movie "Wizard of Oz" from Grammy. This is one of her favorite movies since she and Drake and the cousins got to dress up as the characters for Halloween. Now, everytime she sees a lion on anything, she says "There's Annabeth!"
(pictures to come..)